BULLETIN OF THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE of ARTS and SCIENCES VOLUME XLII SEPTEMBER 11, 1937 NUMBER 1 In This Issue THE RETIRING DIRECTOR Editorial MUSIC AND DANCE NEWS COSTUMES AND OTHER TEXTILES An Illustrated Article REBECCA HOOPER EASTMAN By Marjorie Hillis INSTITUTE NOTES EDITORIALS 1 lie New Program I he Extension School Supplement CHARLES D. ATKINS • Retiring Director Department of Education EXITNSION COURSES FOR THE SEASON 1937-1938 Editorial on Page 3 SEASON 1937 - 1938 FRIDAY EVENING NOVEMBER 19 FRIDAY EVENING JANUARY 7 THURSDAY EVEN INC....FEBRUARY 10 FRI DAY EVEN ING MARCH 1 1 FRIDAY EVENING APRIL 1 FIVE CONCERTS BY THE BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY, Conductor Opera House at 8:30 Academy of Music SUBSCRIPTION Reserved Seat Tickets for the Series: $12.50, $10.00, $8.00, $7.00, $6.00, $5.00. Boxes: $15.00, $10.00, $8.00. NO TAX Series Tickets may be purchased at the Institute Box Office. Mail Orders will be given prompt attention. n. BULLETIN * THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES J C Julius Bloom, Editor SEPTEMBER 11, 1937 Volume XLII Number 1 PUBLISHED BY CONTENTS THE DEPARTMENT OF Frontispiece: "Tapestry Showing the Wise and EDUCATION Foolish Virgins" 2 THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE The Retiring Director ( Charles D. Atkins ) 3 OF ARTS AND SCIENCES BROOKLYN-NEW YORK CITY Music and Dance News: The Berkshire Music Festival 4 Music and the Dance 4, 6-7 Fortnightly SEPTEMBER TO APRIL Costumes and Other Textiles 5 Editorials: The New Program 8 ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION, $2.00 SINGLE NUMBER, 15 CENTS The Extension School 8 TO MEMBERS OF THE INSTITUTE FREE Institute Calendar 8 Rebecca Hooper Eastman. A Tribute by Mariorie Copyrighted by the Brooklyn Institute Hillis 9 of Arts and Sciences, 1937 Institute Notes ] 1 • The Eclipse in Peru ( Charles H. Coles ) 12 Life Membership in the Institute $500.00 The Brattleboro Theatre 12 Sustaining Members, Annual Dues 25.00 • DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Supplement Associate Membership, Registration Fee $5.00 Extension Courses for the Season 1937-1938 Associate Membership, Annual Dues 10.00 A The largest and best equipped Artist BROOKLYN EAGLE PRESS Material Store in Greater New York. C'/fi eciahsis in (Sffechvo GLASNER PRINTING ART SUPPLY COMPANY WELL PROPERLY Materials for Artists, Sculptors PLANNED EXECUTED and Draftsmen 24 Johnson Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. Phone: MAin 4-6200 346 Livingst-on Street- Brooklyn 1 Brooklyn Museum J apestry showing the Wise and Foolisl Virgins. It is a Swedish xvith centnr weaving, Goth ic in style. 7 he R.enaissanc< influence was felt late in this region n, BULLETIN o/ THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES Volume XLII Brooklyn, New York City, September 11, 1937 Number 1 THE RETIRING DIRECTOR IN June of this year Charles Duke Atkins tendered host of prominent commentators and students of his resignation as Director 'of the Department of current history. Nor did he ignore promising figures Education of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and in other fields. Among the well-known speakers Mr. Sciences. For twenty-three years Mr. Atkins guided Atkins brought to the Academy platform were Alfred the Institute program, one of the largest and most Noyes, Harold J. Laski, Gilbert K. Chesterton, Wil¬ comprehensive programs for adult education in the liam Starr Myers, Hugh Walpole, H. G. Wells, Abbe country, and in that period applied an indefatigable Dimnet, H. V. Kaltenborn, Branson De Cou, John vigor, a clear and enlightened vision, to the problems Galsworthy and Stanley High. and responsibilities of his post. New interests were also brought to the Institute When he received his appointment to the Institute, with the inception of the Young Members' Course, in 1914, Mr. Atkins had already established his repu¬ a series of motion pictures, plays, marionette shows tation as an educational pathfinder in Philadelphia, and illustrated lectures for children belonging to where he was Director of the American Society for Members' families. Mr. Atkins also aided followers the Extension of University Teaching. The task that of the dramatic arts through the formation of the In¬ faced him in Brooklyn, however, would have over¬ stitute Players, whose success as a community enter¬ whelmed a less competent man. The Institute, under prise sprang largely from the enthusiasm of his in¬ Professor Hooper, had grown into a vast educational terest and support. universe of its own. At Oxford University it had A large Membership and an excellent program both been cited as "the best American example of the contributed to the growth and reputation of the In¬ University Extension work which is being carried stitute, but it was the liberal gifts and benefactions on so vigorously by the great Universities of Oxford, of the Institute's friends, augmented by the develop¬ Cambridge, Dublin and Scotland." The schedule of ment of a strong Reserve Foundation that ensured lectures, courses and demonstrations was one of the future programs. During Mr. Atkins' twenty-three largest in the world. When death deprived the In¬ years as Director of the Department of Education, stitute of Professor Hooper, it was decided to divide many funds were placed at the disposal of the In¬ the work into three departments, each under its own stitute for the benefit of its Educational division: Director. The regular Institute activities were con¬ the S. P. Avery Fund, the Proctor Foundation, the tinued under the aegis of the Department of Educa¬ Harris and Ella J. Filson Funds, a general endow¬ tion, which Mr. Atkins was called to direct. ment from the late John T. Underwood, the Robert But in addition to building the program each B. Woodward Fund, the A. Augustus Healy Fund, season, Mr. Atkins had to face a mounting deficit. the Herman Stutzer Fund, the Hood Foundation, the He plunged into these problems with a zest and de¬ Sidney Maddock Fund and the Elizabeth A. Austin termination that aroused the intelligent laymen of Fund. the community. The deficit was eradicated and a Though the Institute safely weathered the financial reserve fund, based on generous contributions from crash of 1929 and ensuing Depression years, a forward-looking individuals and increased income troubled period again raised its head over a year from a growing Membership, took its place. The ago. The Institute had acquired the Academy of new spirit was contagious and the Membership, too, Music building. A larger Membership and addi¬ began to increase. tional funds were necessary to meet safely the ex¬ With the interest in current events that spread pansion in the Institute's facilities. Again, as through through the country at the outbreak of the Great all the years of his professional career, Mr. Atkins' War, unprecedented audiences jammed the Brooklyn tirelessness made itself manifest. His working day Academy of Music's halls to hear leading inter¬ knew no normal bounds, extending from morning preters of the world chaos and to engage in public to late hours at night. Problems presented them¬ forums. Here Mr. Atkins showed his skill as a pro¬ selves with greater frequency and in their midst gram builder, for he introduced to the Institute a loomed the demands of a [Continued on Page 11] 3 THE BULLETIN OF THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES into consideration. For the coming season, artists who won public acclaim in previous MUSIC and years have been invited to appear again and new sensations in the concert world invited along with them to comprise one of the most DANCE NEWS fascinating series ever presented in the Acad¬ emy of Music. Audiences will welcome the return of Heif- The Berkshire Music Festival. Summer music has etz, Flagstad and the Ballet Russe to Brooklyn. Their taken a definite place in American life, a place that reception last year was deservedly overwhelming. it has long held in Europe through such splendid After an absence from American shores Richard achievements as the Salzburg Festival. Started four Crooks will again appear in the Institute program. years ago at Lenox, Massachusetts, as an unpreten¬ He returns from a triumphal tour of Australia where tious series of concerts by members of the New York he played to almost unbelievable capacity houses. Philharmonic Symphony, the Berkshire Festival sud¬ One dispatch from Melbourne reported a return en¬ denly came into its own last year under the distin¬ gagement audience of 16,000! Also returning to the guished leadership of Serge Koussevitzky and the American concert platform is Yehudi Menuhin. Fresh Boston Symphony Orchestra. On the 200-acre "Tan- from a two-year vacation, he is embarking on an am¬ glewood" estate near Stockbridge where Nathaniel bitious tour of the United States and Europe. Hawthorne wrote his "Tanglewood Tales," three con¬ Walter Gieseking is called by his admirers the certs were given and proved immensely popular both "giant among pianists." His rich and eloquent mas¬ among the sophisticated summer colonists and the tery of the piano attracts larger followings each year. simple people of surrounding communities who dem¬ Similarly with Shan-Kar, who dances of Hindu lore onstrated no less a love for fine music. amid a glittering background of color and movement, This summer, with "Tanglewood" turned over by and Trudi Schoop, whom one critic has called the its owners as a permanent home for the Festival, an "funniest girl in the world." Trudi's Comic Ballet augmented program of six concerts was conducted by closes the season with a dash of comedy that puts her Dr. Koussevitzky in the temporary tent before near- audiences in proper mood for another summer's capacity audiences of about 5,000 which responded vacation. to the performances with tumultuous approval. The The newcomers to the Institute's stage equal in audiences included representatives from virtually brilliance the older favorites.